It seems that Jared is in a fragile place at the moment. I hope he’s well.

It may be tough for Jared to hear but he is strong and can handle it. This is to be expected when he started AKF. People have very powerful success stories to tell. I’m of the belief that since he started this movement, he should be ready to hear from everyone affected by it. This woman’s story is a blessing, as hard as it is to hear. AKF and Jared have been able to help her. He should be proud of that. That said…. There is a time and place for this and during a con session is not it. Everyone wants to have fun and enjoy themselves, Jared included. People do need to be respectful of that. Perhaps in the future, Jared can set up a specified time just for AKF stories and have them only being shared at this time? That way he can get some control over the situation rather than being surprisingly affronted by fans? I am so grateful that Jensen has Jared’s back. It is so wonderful to see him being Jared’s foothold. It very much reminds me of Sam and Dean. Jared and Sam have the “save the world qualities” about them and Jensen and Dean have “save Sam and Jared” qualities so they in turn, can save the world.

Okay, no. No. Jared is a human being whose limits have to be respected. You can’t just go and say “he can handle it”. How do you know that? Especially considering that last year, he had to take a month long break and cancel conventions and appearances because he couldn’t handle it?

It’s not his responsibility to listen to anyone at all. He does it because he wants to, and because, to a certain extent, these stories empower him too. But we don’t know how much of it he can take. Not a single one of us sits there with him through the entire day, counting stories up to a point where it might get too heavy. Guess who does that? Guess who knows Jared’s limits, and sits beside him the entire day? Jensen. So if Jensen says “please, do this for Jared”, I’m going to take his word on it. You don’t have the authority to tell anyone, much less Jared, that he “should be ready to hear from everyone”, or that he “should be proud of that”. He is proud.

And yet, he is. A fucking. Human. Being.

Moreover, guess what? He’s also not a professional listener. He’s a professional storyteller. He struggles with mental illness himself. Do you know how fucking hard it is to bear the weight of everyone’s stories, everyone’s gratefulness, when you’re just another someone? Have you ever had three hundred people cry on you because they owe their lives to you? Do you have any idea how overwhelming something like that is?

You want to tell him something? Great. Tell him. Literally, tell him, he loves to hear it. But do it in a way that doesn’t burden him. Don’t put him through what you’ve been through. Tell him he helped. Tell him AKF helped. And then, let someone else take his mind off of it. Let him walk out of that situation, figuratively or literally, when he needs to. He doesn’t owe us anything. Not a single one of us. Not as the person tying the AKF community together. Not as a celebrity. Not as a human being.

So if someone as close to Jared as Jensen asks you to do something, or not to do something, for Jared’s sake – fucking listen to him. Jensen’s been there with him through this entire thing. Jared talks to him. He’ll know, even if Jared can’t say it himself, when something’s too hard or heavy for Jared, or if it’s something he can’t let go of afterwards.

We don’t have a special AKF meeting, so people will be doing this in a convention setting. Consider that he has no way out of that. He can’t opt out of his autograph queue if he needs to take a break. He has to push through it and take a break later, after twenty more stories have already gone over that quota. You can’t tell him, or us, that he just needs to suck it up and live with the consequences because he “chose” that. We have to respect him. It doesn’t mean we can’t speak to him, but the moment you start thinking he owes you something, you’re dead fucking wrong.

He doesn’t.

Thank you, beekeepercain for these wise words. If only more fans would heed these words. I think some fans are way too self-involved to think about how Jared feels.

Venting details about one’s pain and trauma to Jared, rather than a general “Thank you for being inspirational to me while I went through a really dark time” is SELFISH. It’s putting your own needs above his, and that’s not very kind. It hurts anyone to hear the stories of what people go through, and an empathetic, sensitive person like Jared can’t easily protect himself against the pain of hearing it.

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